LEBIA LEGO M I N C> S .-!:. 



house collections, thrive on a compost of loam and 

 moor-earth, and are propagated by cuttings. 



LEBIA. (Latreille). A genus of small but hand- 

 some species of coleopterous insects belonging to the 

 family Carabidce and sub-family Brachinides, having 

 the elytra very broad, the thorax broader than long, ; 

 with a transverse lobe on its posterior margin ; the 

 terminal joint of the palpi is larger than the preced- 

 ing, with trWpenultimate joint or' the tarsi more or 

 less bifid. Type Carabus crux minor, Linnaeus, a very 

 rare and elegant British species, having a black cross 

 upon the pale buff elytra. Bonelli separated some 

 of the species under the name of Lamprias, which 

 have linear antennce, and the penultimate joint of the 

 tarsi but slightly bilobed ; which genus is adopted by 

 the English, but rejected by the French entomologists. 

 LECHE'A (Linnaeus). A genus of pretty North 

 American herbaceous perennials, belonging to Lin- 

 iiacus' third class, and to the natural order Gstineee. 

 These plants, according to Sweet, are best kept in 

 small pots, and grown in turfy loam and moor-earth. 

 They are increased by cuttings. 



LECYTHIS (Linnaeus). A genus of ornamental 

 trees and shrubs, natives of South America. The 

 flowers are polyandrious, and the genus belongs to 

 Myrtacece. They succeed best in a rich loamy soil, 

 and ripened cuttings produce roots in sand placed on 

 hotbeds ; the cuttings should not be stripped of their 

 leaves. The fruit of Lccyth'us is a large pyxidium 

 (like a chest or box) as big as a child's head, and 

 with its operculnm (opening), somewhat resembles an 

 oil-jar, whence the generic name L. grandiflura is 

 the greater, and L. minor the lesser, cannon-ball trees 

 of Cumana ; the former is one of the most gigantic 

 trees in the ancient forests of Brazil. The seeds of 

 all the species are edible, and used like chestnuts 

 either raw or roasted : but after they are swallowed, 

 they leave .an unpleasant bitter taste in the mouth. 

 Monkeys are, however, more fond of them than men ; 

 and hence the large seed-vessel full of seeds is called 

 the " monkey's porridge-pot." 



LEDON is the specific name of the Cisttis ledon of 

 Lambert. The ledon-gum rock-rose of the books 

 and nurseries is a hardy ornamental shrub found in 

 France. 



LEDRA (Fabrioins). A curious genus of homo- 

 pterous insects belonging to the family Cercopidce, 

 having the margins of the thorax elevated on each side 

 into a kind of ear-shaped appendage. The type of 

 the genus is the Cicada aurita, Linnaeus, a large and 

 not uncommon insect in the south of England, of a 

 dull brow;i colour. 



LEDUM (Linnseus). A genus of North Ameri- 

 can shrubs, always seen in our gardens in company 

 with the Azaleaa and Rhododendrons, brought from 

 the same country. In America it is called the La- 

 brador fe, its leaves being used as a substitute for the 

 true Thea during the war for independence. The 

 flowers are decandrious ; and the Ledums, of which 

 there are four species, belong to the natural order 

 It/iodorace<E. The Ledums are raised from layers or 

 seeds. 



LEEA (Linnaeus). A genus of tropical shrubs 

 named in honour of Messrs. Lee, nurserymen and 

 botanists of Hammersmith, near London. Class and 

 order Pentaudria Mono^i/nia, and natural older Mc- 

 /iacea>. Generic character : flowers monoecious ; 

 calyx bell-shaped and five-cleft; corolla tube short, 

 limb five-cleft, segments bagged ; urceolus perigy- 



nous, cylindrical, in five divisions, each segment bifid ; 

 stamens alternating with the segments of the urceolus, 

 short ; anthers incumbent, style simple ; stigmas 

 thickish and gashed ; berry five or six-seeded. These 

 plants are kept in the stove, grown in light loam, and 

 are propagated by cuttings. 



LEE-CHEE, or LITCHI, is the Euphoria liichi of 

 Desfontaines, and Dimocarpus litchi of Loureiro, a 

 Chinese fruit-tree, belonging to the natural order 

 Sapindaceee. The fruit is sweet, with a sub-acid fla- 

 vour, and esteemed by the Chinese. The fruit are 

 in the greatest perfection when just gathered from 

 the tree ; and as they cannot be produced at Pekin 

 by reason of the coldness of the climate, whole trees, 

 it is said, are transported from Quantong to Pekin 

 for the use of the Emperor every year. 



LEEK. Is the AltiUm porrum of Liungeus, a well- 

 known culinary vegetable. The cultivation is simple ; 

 a seed bed is sown in March ; soon as the seedlings 

 are of the size of a goose-quill they are transplanted 

 into rows one foot apart, and six inches distant from 

 each other, upon an open rich spot of well-digged 

 ground. They need no other care, save keeping the 

 ground clean among them till they are fit for use. If 

 a large size be desirable, the richest ground must bo 

 chosen for them, together with early sowing and 

 transplanting. 



LEGUMINOS^E. One of the largest and best 

 defined natural orders of the vegetable kingdom. It 

 contains all the plants bearing butterfly-shaped flowers 

 and pod-like seed vessels. Two hundred and forty- 

 four genera are already described in books, and nearly 

 three thousand species have been named. This order 

 comprises some of the most useful, as well as many of 

 the most beautiful of plants. Among the former all 

 the products called pulse are directly or indirectly 

 serviceable to man ; and among the latter we may 

 instance the restharrow, broom, and furze upon our 

 wastes, up to the lupines, the erythrinas, cytisus, 

 wistarias, and achyronias of warmer climes. Many 

 excellent medicines are also obtained from this order, 

 as the cassia, senna, &c. Linnaeus divided the pulse, 

 which Jussieu and De Candolle have again conjoined 

 into two orders, his thirty-second and thirty-third, 

 called PapilionaccfB and Lomcntacece ; the first in- 

 cluding those genera which have butterfly-shaped 

 flowers and true legumes ; the second, those in which 

 the corollae are regular, and for the most part rosa- 

 ceous, and the fruit that modified form of legume 

 which is known as a lornent. 



" The arrangement of this tribe of plants has been 

 found to be attended with much difficulty. By Lin- 

 naeus, and the writers who succeeded him, the number 

 of genera was much smaller than those admitted by 

 botanists of the present age ; many additions have 

 been made in consequence of the discovery of New 

 Holland, and a large number of subdivisions in the 

 old genera have been from time to time introduced 

 by one writer or another. To combine those scattered 

 improvements under one uniform system has lately 

 been attempted by the learned professor De Candolle. 

 He has divided LegnminoscB into two grand divisions, 

 the first of which consists of plants the radicle of 

 whose seed is curved back upon the edge of the coty- 

 ledons, and the second of those whose radicle and 

 cotyledons are straight ; the former are Curvembr'us 

 and the latter Rectembr'uE. In the Curvembnee, cer- 

 tain diversities in the structure of the calyx and 

 corolla again divide into two principal forms ; one of 

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